CaixaBank Private Banking launches ‘Independent Advisory’ to reinforce its commitment to providing independent advice services

• CaixaBank Private Banking will expand its independent advice to new customer segments, which had previously been exclusive to high net worth individuals serviced by CaixaBank Wealth.
• Around a hundred of managers – all with an extensive experience in Private Banking – will be servicing clients at the start of the project. To ensure high quality of service, each manager will be responsible for no more than 75 customers.
• The new Independent Advisory service expects to reach around 9,000 customers in two years.

CaixaBank Private Banking reinforces its commitment to providing independent advice with the launch of ‘Independent Advisory’, a service that is aimed at customers with a potential net worth between one and four million euros. The service will offer a full product suite and charge specific advisory fees, providing complete transparency to investors. It will also feature specialized managers in the bank’s Private Banking centres.

The company is implementing this initiative following the success of CaixaBank Wealth, the first independent advisory service in the Spanish banking market. Launched four years ago in an effort to provide an industry-leading service, CaixaBank Wealth offers a staff of 80 managers and portfolios with a maximum of 35 customers per manager.

At the end of 2021, CaixaBank Wealth had €16.9 billion in assets under management, the highest figure in Spain, 2,000 customers with signed independent advice contracts and was growing by more than 600 family groups in the year,

With the launch of ‘Independent Advisory’, CaixaBank seeks to expand the independent advice of CaixaBank Private Banking to new customer segments. Until now, this type of advice was limited to CaixaBank Wealth, servicing the premium private banking segment.

"The independent advice product we have developed in recent years for customers in the Wealth segment, with fully transparent costs, has been very successful, allowing us to consolidate the independent advisory service for high-wealth customers. It led us to reinforce our commitment to this type of service and expand it to those customers who have assets valued between one and four million”, notes Víctor Allende, director of CaixaBank Private Banking.

To define and launch the project, as well as to coordinate it throughout Spain, CaixaBank has created the Independent Advice Sales Department, led by Marta Alonso, who will report directly to Víctor Allende.

This initiative enhances CaixaBank Private Banking's commitment to providing independent advice, making the service available to a larger range of equity customers and significantly improving service transparency.

Every CaixaBank Private Banking centre will have at least one independent advice manager, who will be responsible for a customer portfolio that is fully separate from that of the non-independent advice managers, ensuring transparency and independence. To achieve a high-quality service, the goal is to assign a maximum number of 75 customers to every manager.

One hundred managers – all with extensive experience in Private Banking – will be employed at the start of the project. The service will evolve based on feedback from customers and the bank will seek to increase the number of managers as demand grows.

The target for the new ‘Independent Advisory’ service of CaixaBank Private Banking is to have about 9,000 customers in two years, a significant portion of the total customers in this segment. This is because not every customer will potentially require this type of advice. For example, those with highly conservative profiles, such as the elderly or customers with a large portion of their wealth in pension products, will continue working with the bank through the non-independent advisory service to plan their investment goals.

“The ‘Independent Advisory’ service is going to offer the most complete value proposition on the market, with solutions tailored to our customers' needs in every phase of their life – combining advice, management delegation and execution-only solutions”, says Alonso. 

Products and services offered

To select investment funds, the ‘Independent Advisory’ service has a first-rate team employing a multidisciplinary, financial and mathematical approach that is a first in analysing and tracking these types of instruments.

In addition, the Investment Strategy Department provides specialised support to customers in this segment, based on sample portfolios assembled using the best products from an extensive investment universe, that also considers returns and cost-saving aspects.

The service also offers specialised advice on illiquid investments in order to diversify strategies segmented into asset subclasses (venture capital, buyouts, real estate, private debt, trends, etc.), preparing the ideal investment portfolio for each customer.

The catalogue of funds selected by CaixaBank Private Banking offers retrocession-free classes, which makes these products very competitive.

Similarly, customers will be given access to structured products, with highly competitive conditions to solidify the independence of the advice with an open architecture for selecting issuers.

The users of the ‘Independent Advisory’ service, whose portfolio size allows for optimal operations in the capitals market, have the option to work with the Independent Advice Desk, with direct access to the specialists at that desk.

The Asset Advice Department will provide specialised tax advice to customers in this segment by analysing the best asset structure, providing succession planning or the most suitable regime for a family company. It will do so in close collaboration with the customer's tax consultant.

Another notable exclusive service is the philanthropy advice through the Social Value Project, intended for customers who wish to make a charitable contribution to help solve a social problem.

All this advice is provided through the ‘Independent Advisory’ service and relies on an advised portfolio, subject to an explicit commission, providing transparency and lowering costs for the customer.

‘Independent Advisory’ customers will have access to the entire suite of CaixaBank Private Banking portfolio management services, based on the amount they wish to delegate and their characteristics as investors.

CaixaBank Private Banking

CaixaBank Private Banking offers various service models to adapt to each customer's needs and preferences, ranging from those who demand a global advisory service to those who operate at their own initiative in the management of their assets using a platform with global capabilities for investment in securities, funds and other management products.

The CaixaBank Private Banking model features a team of close to 1,000 specialised professionals and has 73 dedicated centres distributed nationwide.

Following the merger with Bankia, CaixaBank Private Banking had €114.62 billion under management at the end of 2021.

After the launch of ‘Independent Advisory’, and recently with the launch of OpenWealth, CaixaBank Private Banking has become more specialised, offering greater segmentation depending on the needs of its customers.

To access these services, a customer needs to possess assets valued at half a million euros, or a need warranting the use of these services. The services provide access to traditional private banking services, including non-independent advice.

Customers with assets between one and four million euros have the option to use the ‘Independent Advisory’ services or independent advice, with transparent costs and access to an extensive portfolio of assets.

For high-worth customers, CaixaBank offers Wealth, the unit specialising on independent advice and efficient costs, charging an explicit fee based on the total assets under management. It has a separate organisational brand and structure consisting of 13 centres and a specialised team devoted solely to this segment in which each manager handles a maximum of 35 customers.

Recently, CaixaBank launched OpenWealth, a company that provides a global independent consultancy service for the entity's highest net-worth individuals, catering to customers with a potential net worth in excess of €50 million. The goal of this new entity is to offer Multifamily Office services for large asset holders by selecting the best providers for each requirement and engaging in an in-depth analysis and due diligence involving every option on the market. It does so by using an entirely independent model with explicit fees.